


captive caresses

by sunkelles



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Cheating, F/F, Femslash, Quaranfics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:20:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23210860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Cassandra was willing to give up everything for Rapunzel: her ambitions, her right to a relationship that doesn't have to be secret, her future.But not anymore.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 142





	captive caresses

**Author's Note:**

> I started this a month ago for an event called Dark Femslash Week, focusing on dark themes in femslash pairings. the prompt that inspired this particular fic was 
> 
> “You found me beautiful, like something you saw in a dream,  
> I forgot everything, I forgot my childhood and my homeland,  
> I only knew that your caresses held me captive.”  
> Edith Södergran, Love
> 
> I kind of got caught up on the idea of a more morally grey Rapunzel who was more of an active, intentional cause of Cassandra's issues, and Cassandra dealing with it... until she doesn't. I especially wanted to think about turning the dynamic that I normally go with, where Eugene is actually the one who kind of suggests the V shaped polyamory on its head and working a little with that power imbalance, because Rapunzel IS the princess, and if she demanded some V shaped polyamory... she could probably make something like that happen, at least in this darker au where that's something she'd consider.
> 
> If you don't like dark fics, I would suggest skipping this one. It's not the darkest thing I've ever written by any means, but it does hit harder when the the character affected by the change is someone like Rapunzel, I think.
> 
> Remember fam, this is rated M, because there's some implied sexual content, yadda yadda yadda. Please don't read if you're a youngster. I can't put up any more flashing signs that say "DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT" beyond this point.

Cassandra and Rapunzel lie in the dark, hands held. Cassandra feels Rapunzel’s other hand wrap around her back, feels the girl close the gap between them. She feels the slight breeze of the other girl’s breath against her lips. 

“Just this once,” Raps says. Cassandra has wanted this for so long- all she wants is to say _yes._

“Just once?” Cassandra asks. She wants so much more than once- so much more than _secret._ She might be able to keep a secret (unlike Rapunzel’s idiot of a boyfriend) but that doesn’t mean that she wants to. If she kisses Raps, she wants to shout it from the rooftops. She wants the whole kingdom to know that Rapunzel loves her enough to kiss her. 

Rapunzel smiles, a little coy. 

“Maybe twice,” she says. Cassandra knows that this isn't going to amount to what she wants, but- she still wants it. Cassandra leans forward, lips ghosting against Rapunzel’s. Then, she seals the deal with a kiss. 

Cassandra quickly learns that Rapunzel means more than twice. 

“We don’t have to stop,” she says. 

“What about Eugene,” Cassandra protests. Eugene isn’t her favorite person, but he’s, well. Unless Rapunzel’s going to _dump_ him, which she wouldn’t wish on the man, he’s not going anywhere. 

“He wouldn’t like it, but he’d get over it,” Rapunzel says. Which means that Rapunzel intends to keep going with both of them. 

“I don’t know about that,” Cassandra says. 

“Do you really want to talk to him about it?” Rapunzel says, “because we could."

"I can't see Eugene just being alright with sharing," Cassandra says.

"I'm the princess," Rapunzel says, "he'd just have to just get over it." That leaves an unpleasant pit in Cassandra's stomach. Rapunzel- she doesn't tend to remember that she has such power over the people in her life. She certainly doesn't normally talk so casually about wielding it against their wishes.

"Do you want me to?" Rapunzel asks. Cassandra shakes her head.

“We can just keep this between us,” Cassandra says, shame burning deep in her gut. Even if Rapunzel were to tell him, and Eugene were fine with it (or, god forbid, Rapunzel _made_ him fine with it), that wouldn't make everyone in the kingdom suddenly alright with the idea of the princess dating a lady in waiting on top of her convict boyfriend. She worries that this might get her shipped off to the convent- sullying the princess outside the bounds of her nice, heterosexual relationship? Somehow this would be all her fault, and she knows the ax would come down on her head. 

And there’s an unpleasant feeling, burrowed deep within her, that she doesn’t deserve any of this. That she’s a thieving interloper who shouldn’t be kissing Rapunzel out in the sunlight where everyone can see. 

Cassandra is a great guard, despite her father’s best attempts to convince her otherwise. She often gets job offers to become the personal guard of some visiting royalty when she swoops in and saves them from the villain of the day. She always considers taking them, but then… Rapunzel comes in with her wide eyes, and talks about how much she'd miss her. And talks about how important Cassandra is to her, and how she could never replace her and how could the kingdom go on without her? Cassandra can't help but give in. Her ambitions can wait a little longer. At least while Rapunzel's looking at her with those loving eyes and kissing her just like that.

It’s months of stolen kisses, nights of longing touches. And Cassandra wants more: recognition of a relationship, position, status, but she never asks for it. She can wait, and it will come- right? That’s what she decided when she turned down the Queen of Ingvarr when she offered her a spot in her guard. Or the Princess of Ingelgard, or the Prince of Esterberg, or the Duke or Washlen, or the Countess of Kensington. 

Good things come to those who wait, right? All the love, all the glory, all the recognition. She just needs to wait a little, and it will come her way. 

And the good things come, in a way, at least. One night, when they’re cuddled up in Rapunzel’s bed, her arms wrapped around you tightly, Rapunzel whispers something in Cassandra’s ear. 

“I love you.” 

“I love you, too, Raps,” Cassandra says, and nothing has ever felt truer. 

But the fact of it hangs over your neck like a headman’s ax: a queen can’t have two spouses. And she will always choose Eugene. Cassandra knows it deep in the crevices of her soul where all her deepest, darkest secrets reside. He will always be boyfriend, fiance, husband, and she will just be handmaiden, lover, secret. 

Rapunzel loves Cassandra, but Rapunzel loves him more. She will always love him more. Sure, Rapunzel said that she'd talk to Eugene and make him agree to this, whatever it is, if Cassandra wanted her to. Sure, she made those promises, but they're still here- this romance is still a secret. Rapunzel is not willing to lose Eugene over it, and if one of them were to go- it wouldn't be the one paraded around the kingdom as "boyfriend". It would be the one they call "homewrecker". It would be the second best lover, kept secret.

The wound festers, and festers, and festers. The juices of infection spurt out all over what she’d once convinced herself was beautiful. 

Cassandra takes the moonstone, rips it out of the ground and sees it embed itself deep within her chest- right beside her heart. That’s where she keeps her rage, so that makes as much sense as anything. Cassandra rants and raves, lets out everything bit of anger she ever had. At being ignored, disrespected, treated as second best. 

At being the secret lover- the lesser one, and she sees Eugene’s face contort in pain. She eats up that pain, knowing that he’s not loved as thoroughly as he always thought. That there’s someone else, stealing away bits of his spotlight- that Rapunzel is willing to make him share. 

“I gave up so much for you, Rapunzel,” Cassandra says. 

“Cass, I never asked you to do this,” Rapunzel says.

“But you _let_ me,” Cass hisses. Rapunzel pales. There’s really no arguing with that. She offered to talk to Eugene- to make whatever this thing was legitimate instead of cheating, an open relationship instead of a secret, but she didn’t press the issue when Cassandra asked her not to. She didn’t urge Cassandra to take the job that could have finally made her great. She talked Cassandra out of taking lesser jobs, out of leaving, out of _being happy_. 

Rapunzel let her keep giving and giving and giving- 

“I cut off bits of myself and let myself bleed for you,” Cassandra hisses. 

“Isn’t that just a _little_ bit over-dramatic?” Rapunzel asks, and Cassandra feels a burst of rage. As her anger spikes, bright blue spikes pierce through the ground in front of her. They engulf the middle of the platform, and even Rapunzel cannot squeeze her way through. 

“Cassandra!” Rapunzel shouts, pounding at the ends of the rock. Cassandra feels her anger build again, and a spike spouts from her hand this time, piercing a small cut in it. It hurts, but Cassandra refuses to dwell on it as she sees a drop of blood splatter to the ground between her and the rocks separating her and Rapunzel. 

“I’m not waiting for you anymore,” Cassandra says. She turns her head, and doesn’t look back as Rapunzel screams at her. Cassandra just leaves, a trail of her blood dripping behind her. 

**Author's Note:**

> happy covid19 social distancing party!


End file.
